Frequently Asked Questions

Sure. We have to fly and put up Dr. Demento because he's coming from the West Coast. With his expenses and the amount we plan to pay our headliners total, we expect to spend about $4500 on that alone. With the remaining $3k, we want to pay the rest of the performers. If there is anything left, it will be spent on things like programs, banners and buying our interns lunch. All other costs are coming out of the 2012 festival funds, of which there are about $2k. Not one penny of this money is actually going into the festival producer's pockets, unlike so many other projects. We are creating and making this festival happen because we love to make people laugh and we love music. Whatever proceeds are recouped from the festival will go into the 2014 festival account, joining a $4k grant which has been allotted to us and will be received Dec. 2013.

Great question! If we get our Kickstarter funds, we can say with almost 100% certainty that Dr. Demento will be here. In addition, we plan to invite Reggie Watts and Eugene Mirman to headline (did you see Eugene's theremin piece on Comedy Central? Can you say awesome?!?). Alongside those fellas, you'll be enjoying performances by over 50 award winning, hilarious, almost sorta pretty mostly famous performers. For crikies' sake, check out these bios:

JESSICA DELFINO: Jessica Delfino is a critically acclaimed and award winning musician who has performed her quirky comedy songs all over the world in festivals, theaters, and on TV and the radio. Winner of a “Village Voice Choice” Award and the “ECNY Best Comedic Musician” award, Jessica has performed on Good Morning America, the Russell Brand radio show, the historic Loose Ends Programme on BBC4, at the infamous Reading and Leeds Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Fest, Dublin Comedy Festival, Montreal Comedy Festival and NY International Children’s Film Festival among others, on Fox’s Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, The Opie and Anthony Show, Dr. Demento and more. Jessica has also written songs for the “What Would Jesus Buy?” feature film produced by Morgan Spurlock, and regularly performs at NYC’s most premiere small music and comedy venues such as Joe’s Pub, UCB, Ars Nova and more. Several of her songs have “gone viral” on YouTube. Most recently, Jessica created the http://www.nyfunnysongs.com/.

BEN LERMAN: Ben Lerman is an award-winning comedy musician and songwriter. Ben plays colleges, clubs and festivals as a solo comedy musician. He’s popular guest on radio and podcast shows like The Frank DeCaro Show on Sirius XM and the Keith & the Girl Podcast, and he has appeared on Logo TV and Here TV. His debut music video was featured on Atom.com. Ben was nominated for an Excellence in Comedy in New York Award for Best Musical Comedy Act in 2011. He won the award for Best Male Comedy Musician at the 2012 New York Funny Songs Festival. In 2012, Ben started http://bigbandhot100.com/, a monthly music party at the Ace Hotel where a 12-piece band plays covers of the current Billboard Charts with guest singers from all over the New York City performance map, including Jackie Hoffman, Julie Klausner, and Xavier. http://www.benlerman.net/

JEN KWOK: Jen Kwok is a delightful ukulele comedian who loves to entertain you! Armed with a velvety voice and razor-sharp wit, Jen's unique performance style flips stereotypes and takes a twisted spin on every day life. In college, Jen triple- majored in business but traded in spreadsheets for punch lines after being named a national finalist in NBC's Stand- Up for Diversity. Since then, Jen has been profiled by The New York Times, PBS and MTV, and her viral web videos - including the much loved, yet mildly controversial "Date An Asian" have pulled in over 3 million views. Her music video, "Take You Home", was featured onComedy Central. Jen also made her film debut this past summer in "Eat, Pray, Love". Based in New York, Jen performs everywhere from "classy" venues likeHighline Ballroom and Gotham Comedy Club to bawdy basement burlesque shows and college campuses. A prominent member of the Asian American performing community, Jen hosts PBS' Asian American and the Asian-American Writer's Workshops Open Mic series. As a writer, Jen's work has also appeared on http://MarieClaire.com, http://VH1.com%C2%A0and%C2%A0TV Grapevine. http://www.jenkwok.com/

MARK DOUGLAS / THE KEY OF AWESOME: The Key of Awesome is a magical musical comedy show featured on the http://www.youtube.com/user/barelypolitical?blend=1&ob=4. In 2009, Ben Relles and Mark Douglas had the crazy idea to create The Key of Awesome just to blow your mind. Like it was nothing. But it wasn’t nothing! The show’s first big hit, the parodyhttp://youtu.be/d7n8GqewJ2M, was the http://youtu.be/RUzLhHH7gHg and now has over 90 million views. In total Barely Political has been viewed over 1.3 billion times, and the Key of Awesome over 600 million times. The Key of Awesome videos are directed by Tom Small who is capable of creating other planets out of cardboard among other amazing special effects miracles. http://www.youtube.com/user/wombatron/featured joined the team in 2010 as a writer and performer on the Barely Political channel and started doing a better Pitbull impression than even Pitbull does. KoA loves spoofing celebrities, pop-culture and the latest Internet memes. We like to throw in an occasional original song by comedic maestro Mark Douglas just to keep things spicy.

ROB CANTRELL: Rob Cantrell tours the world making people laugh at festivals, comedy clubs and theaters. He has been on several TV networks (including Comedy Central, FX, HBO, CBS and NBC) and has performed at the “BONNAROO” and the “SXSW” music / arts festivals. From 2007-2012, Rob acted in and wrote for the long-running touring comedy play “The Marijuana-logues”. In 2010, Cantrell performed in two full-length Hip-Hop music videos shown on Comedy Central’s “AtomTV” program and made an appearance in a promo for HBO’s “Flight Of The Concords”. Early 2009 he released a stand-up/music album “Keep On The Grass” which can be heard in heavy rotation on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Rob also produced his own travel documentary DVD, “Metaphysical Graffiti-A Road Movie,” which was shown during the Cannes Film Festival and at a “Sold Out” premier at the “Dark Room Theater” in San Francisco in 2005. As a comic/writer/director, Cantrell’s short film ideas have been commissioned by Comedy Central, HowardTV, Bonnaroo365 and also have been featured on the front page of ‘Funny or Die’s” website several times. Born in Washington DC and raised in Virginia, Rob first started performing stand-up comedy after graduating from college. He moved out west to start paying his dues in the vibrant San Francisco comedy scene. The past few years Cantrell has been back on the east coast honing his skills in every kind of venue there is in New York City. Rob is now living in Brooklyn, NY with his beautiful wife and daughter.

ADIRA AMRAM: Adira Amram has been performing her sly, sexy and subversive musical comedy all over NYC and beyond. In 2008 she realized that what she really needed was a backing band and dancers. Thus The Experience was born! Since then they have had the opportunity to perform with some of the greatest performers of all time! In 2009 they toured North America with Kid Koala's The Slew and in 2011 made their UK debut at the** Edinburgh International Fringe Festival** as the house band for Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler's Hot Tub. While in Edinburgh they were invited to perform at the BBC Comedy Presents: Best of Festival Live Show Finale. In NYC they are the house band for Arden Myrin & Lisa Delarios' monthly comedy explosion, The Party Machine as well as the live late night talk show, Night of The Living with Kurt Braunohler. In 2011 they were named Best Musical Comedy Act at the ECNY Awards. In 2009 they released the album Hot Jams For Teens on North Street Records. Her music videos have been featured on the front page of Huffington Post Comedy, Funny or Die and http://ucbcomedy.com/.

STUCKEY & MURRAY: Since erecting their empire 10 years ago, comedy-music duo Stuckey & Murray have won the affection of millions by becoming semi-finalists on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” and appearing on HBO’s “Funny as Hell”, “The Chelsea Handler Show”, and “Cash Cab”. Their music videos and sketches have over 20 million hits and they’ve built an international fan base by performing at The Edinburgh Fringe, The Montreal Comedy Fest, Reading and Leeds, and by playing colleges across the U.S. All three of their albums (Stuckey & Murray Sing The Songs of Stuckey & Murray,Mythical Fornication, andDestination: Rock Bottom) are available at thehttp://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=156507866,http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=k%3Astuckey+and+murray%2Ci%3Adigital-music&keywords=stuckey+and+murray&ie=UTF8&qid=1333647865, andhttp://cdbaby.com/cd/stuckeymurray2. Their songs are heard frequently on Sirius Radio and they’ve composed music for MTV, NBC, Spike, and even Billy Ray Cyrus. Despite being a comedy-music duo, Stuckey & Murray recently invented a one-piece tuxedo calledhttp://thefuxedo.com/. Yes, it’s a real thing.

CARLA RHODES: Carla Rhodes (born 16 April 1982, died ???) is a rock 'n' roll ventriloquist & comedienne. Carla caught the ventriloquial bug at the age of nine after seeing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shari_Lewis and Lamb Chop on television. Carla later caught the attention of her hero and as a result, was mentored by http://carlarhodes.com/media/images/shari.jpg. By the time Carla was a teenager, she was performing all over her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. While attending http://www.mtsu.edu/, she recorded a full length comedy music album in Nashville. "http://carlarhodes.com/media/iloveanimals.mp3," a cut off of "Carla's Golden Hits, vol 6," got rotation on the http://www.drdemento.com/ eventually placing at number two. With a Mass Communications degree under one arm, and a puppet under the other, Carla then escaped to New York City. She has appeared at joints all over New York City including: Joe's Pub, Terminal 5, Bowery Electric, Le Poisson Rouge, Highline Ballroom, Comix and Arlene's Grocery. Print credits include http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/nymagbig.jpg, http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/papermagbig.jpg, http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/carlacecilphlarge.jpg, http://www.nypost.com/seven/03112007/entertainment/movies/_dead__head_movies_michael_kane.htm, http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/tonybig.jpg and the http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/vvbig.jpg. TV credits include appearances on http://www.nbcnewyork.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Review-Dinner-for-Schmucks-99576149.html, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYuyvw717Y4, FUSE, http://imdb.com/title/tt0831874/, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPCa_Fl4EE4 and even a shout-out on the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvduViB8gis Most recently, Carla launched a live comedic rock’n'roll show entitled http://carlarhodes.com/media/thecontinuingstoryofcarlarhodes.htm. Time Out New York proclaims the show “is an idiosyncratic neo-retro blend of ventriloquism, rock music and comic storytelling” and she “throws her voice like a curveball, bringing old-school ventriloquism skills to new-school puppets (including one of Keith Richards) and threading her act with comical anecdotes and rock songs (with help from a backup band, the Extravanganzas).” Check it out on October 5th, 2011 at Bowery Poetry Club. Dubbed by http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/nymagbig.jpg as one of the "http://carlarhodes.com/media/press/nymagbig.jpg," according to Backstage "Carla Rhodes isn’t your typical ventriloquist... She's intent on shaking up the norm..." and described in http://www.thevillager.com/villager_349/travsd.html as "the Savion Glover of vents, almost single-handedly injecting a notoriously uncool and backward-looking performance branch with a badly-needed kick in the ass" Carla Rhodes is certainly bringing ventriloquism screaming into the 21st century!

...and literally dozens and dozens more people with equally killer talent to share...

Last updated: Thu, Apr 4 2013 10:10 pm EDT

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